DJ Spooky: The Nauru Elegies

01:17:06 / Posted on December 28th, 2012

Paul D. Miller (a.k.a. DJ Spooky): "The Republic of Nauru is a small island in the South Pacific Ocean. It was, by consensus of several 'Great Powers,' used as a raw resource until there was literally nothing left. Nauru has been mined throughout the last two centuries for its phosphate deposits, which occupied 90% of the island. As a small territory with no [other] exploitable resources, in the 1990s Nauru turned to off-shore financing, and the creation of 'virtual banks' as a way of earning sorely needed foreign currency. The Nauru Elegies posits that Nauru is a reflection site of many of the issues facing our contemporary information economy.

This event is one of several comprising The Met Reframed, an unprecedented, multilayered, artistic partnership with Paul D. Miller (a.k.a. DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid), a composer, multimedia artist, writer, and DJ. His recorded output includes remixes of music ranging from Wu-Tang Clan, Metallica, and Bob Marley to classical/new music legends Steve Reich and the Kronos Quartet, and he has performed as a DJ at major festivals, including Bonnaroo and Power to the Peaceful. His work as a media artist has been featured at the Whitney Biennial, Venice Biennial, and Miami/Art Basel; and his first collection of essays, Rhythm Science, was released by MIT Press in 2004, followed by Sound Unbound, an anthology of writings on electronic music and digital media (MIT Press, 2008).

"For me, it's such an honor to work with the Met from the viewpoint of sampling," says Paul D. Miller. "I want to make a vibrant reflection of this incredible collection of materials from all over the world. My residency will be a fun festival of ideas: from the South Pacific to Asia, from the Civil War to 3-D photography, from Antarctica to environmental activism. I want to show that music and art are always in dialogue."